Fans of the Samsung Galaxy S series were stoked by the South Korean firm's confirmation of an Unpacked event, featuring the latest Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus models. The promotional images for the said event suggest that the public should be ready for the high-end smartphone's impressive camera improvements. However, the latest leaks bring some disappointing news to the users, as the alleged Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus renders reveal an almost identical design to their S8 and S8 Plus predecessors, with only minor design changes noted.
Venture Beat has recently posted the latest leaked photos of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. The front view of the smartphones shows that the display feature is very much identical to the S8 version, particularly the same bezel-less and all-screen display with curved edges. The Bixby button is still present on the front display, contrary to speculations that the dedicated button for Samsung's voice assistant will be removed.
The Samsung Galaxy S9 is shown to have a 5.8-inch full view display, while the larger S9 Plus variant has a 6.2-inch display. Perhaps the best news from this leak is that both S9 and S9 Plus smartphones will be powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 chipset, at least for the units inside the United States and China. The rest of the world will get Galaxy S9 handsets powered by Samsung's very own Exynos 9810 systems-on-chip (SoC). The Samsung Galaxy S9 will receive 4 gigabytes (GB) of random access memory (RAM) and 64 GB built-in storage, while the S9 Plus will have 6 GB of RAM with 128 GB of storage.
The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus leaks are consistent with the expectations of an upgraded camera module. Both S9 variants are shown to receive 12-megapixel (MP) dual-lens camera setup with an adjustable aperture settings. Users can switch between f/2.4 and f/1.5, the smallest and finest aperture so far than any other premium phones can offer. The camera is also capable of recording super slow-mo video files. On the other hand, the front-facing camera will have an 8 MP sensor.
ZDNet reported that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus will introduce a new location for the rear-positioned fingerprint reader in the Galaxy S8 design. While Venture Beat's leaked renders do not show the back panel of the smartphones, it is believed that the biometric sensor will be vertically aligned with the camera module. This will be a more convenient position of the fingerprint sensor for the users, instead of having it just beside the camera lens.
The Unpacked event for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus will take place during the eve of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 this February.
